Explosively-actuated repeating-action power tool



Jan. 16, 1968 J, BRACK I 3,363,817

EXPLOSIVELY-ACTUATED REPEATING-ACTION POWER TOOL Filed Nov. 12, 1965 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 /&

A P6 30 Z70 P7 Fig.2

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EXPLOSIVELY-ACTUATED REPEATING-ACTION POWER TOOL Filed Nov. 12, 1965 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 EXPLOSIVELY-ACTUATED REPEATING-ACT ION POWER TOOL Filed Nov. 12, 1965 J. BRACK Jan. 16, 1968 3 SheetS Sh et 3 Fig. /0

United States Fatent @fitice 3,363,817 EXPLOSIVELY-ACTUATED REPEATlNG-ACTION POWER TOOL Jacques Brack, Nyon, Switzerland, assignor to ETEM,

Etablissement de Techniques Modernes, Vaduz, Liechtenstein, a company of Liechtenstein Filed Nov. 12, 1965, Ser. No. 567,374 Claims priority, application Switzerland, Nov. 20, 1964, 15,020/64 14) Claims. (Cl. 227--9) This invention relates to so called stud-driving in guns, that is to say to explosively actuated power tools for driving in fastening means such as studs, pins, plugs, nails or like objects into hard and compact materials such as wood, cement, concrete, certain metals and other materials of like nature.

Considerations relating to price, ruggedness of construction, ease of maintenance and ease of handling have resulted in the fact that, at the present time, the majority of stud-driving guns are of the single-shot type, which makes it necessary for the user to reload the gun after each driving or fixing operation.

Stud-driving guns of the repeating type do in fact exist. However, known devices of this type are complicated, costly, delicate, difiicult to maintain and are therefore not suit-able for use on construction sites.

The novel repeating-type stud-driving gun in accordance with the invention circumvents the disadvantages referred to above inasmuch as it is of simple design, sturdy, easy to maintain and competitive in cost. One design feature of the gun consists in the use of cartridge magazines in the form of rigid blocks, or so-called magazineloaders. These blocks are inexpensive to manufacture and are preferably of the disposable type or, in other Words, of the type which can be discarded after the ammunition contained therein has been used. Another design feature of the gun lies in the fact that this latter can be fired from one hand only.

The characteristics and particular features of the invention will be brought out by the following description which relates to one particular form of embodiment of the new stud-driving in gun, said form of embodiment being given solely by way of no-n-limitative example and illustrated diagrammatically in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a view in partial longitudinal cross-section of the stud-driving in gun as shown with a portion of the magazine-loader and sliding breech-block in the rest position;

FIG. 2 is a similar view to the preceding, in which the magazinedoader and the sliding breech-block have just advanced by one step and the firing-pin is striking the cartridge which has been moved into the firing position;

FIG. 3 is a view in cross-section taken along the line III-III of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a view in elevation and in partial crosssection showing the magazine-loader during introduction of this latter into the sliding breech-block (or ejection from said sliding breech-block);

FIG. 5 is a view in elevation and in partial cross-section taken along the line V-V of FIG. 6, showing the magazine-loader which is placed in position and locked within the sliding breech-block;

FIG. 6 is a view in partial cross-section taken along the line VIVI of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a view in partial cross-section taken along the line VII-VlI of FIG. 8, showing the magazine-loader alone;

FIG. 8 is a view looking on the rear end of the magazine loader of FIG. 7;

3,363,817 Patented Jan. 16, 1968 FIG. 9 is a view in perspective of the front end of the firing-pin;

FIG. 10 is a View in partial cross-section of an alternative form of construction of the front portion of the FIG. 11 is a partial view, with a portion broken away, of an alternative form of magazine-loader in which use is made of a simple cradle fitted with a toothed rack, and finally,

FIG. 12 is a view in partial cross-section of the system of braking and registering of the magazine-loader Within its housing.

In the example of construction which is shown in FIGS. 1 to 9 and FIG. 12, the repeating-action stud-driving in gun (which, in this example, is in the form of two parts which are designed to slide telescopically with respect to each other) comprises, in axially slid-able relation to a front unit which will be described hereinafter, a rear sleeve 1 formed of two half-shells 1a and 1b which are rigidly fixed to the stock or grip 1c and which contain any percussion mechanism of suitable type. For example, said mechanism can consist of -a bolt body 2 of cylindrical shape which terminates in a tail-piece 2a provided with an annular groove 2b and balls 3 which cooperate with said groove. Said balls 3 are urged forward in the centripetal direction by springs 4 working inside radial recesses of a ring 5 which is locked inside the sleeve 1 by means of an inner tube -6.

The bolt body 2 has two opposite flat portions which delimit shoulders and with which a washer 7 is adapted to cooperate, said washer being subjected to the action of a forked member 8 which is actuated from a trigger 8a. A restoring spring 9 exerts thrust on the washer 7 with the result that, as the trigger is pulled to the rear by the operator, the action thus produced serves, on the one hand, to compress the percusssion spring 10 which is applied against an annular shoulder formed by the front portion 20 of the bolt body 2 and, on the other hand, to exert a positive thrust on said bolt body 2 so as to overcome the retaining effort which is exerted by the assembly consisting of balls 3 and springs 4, thereby releasing said bolt body which is projected forward by the percussion spring 10.

The body body 2 is provided at the front end thereof with a firing-pin 11 which can strike the cartridge to be fired only if the sleeve 1 (together with the entire percussion or firing mechanism contained therein as Well as the stock and trigger) has been thrust in the forward position in the direction of the front unit which will be described later.

It will be noted that an arrangement of this kind is well known and does not form part of the invention. Moreover, the invention is not limited to a stud-driving in gun which embodies such an arrangement.

The rear end of the front unit comprises a guide bush 12 over which the inner tube 6 is guided, said guide bush being employed at the same time as a bearing point for the front end of the restoring spring 9 and as a guide for the front portion 20 of the bolt body 2.

The guide bush 12 is integral with a slide system consisting of a yoke 13 (in which is screwed a threaded endpiece 12a of the guide bush 12), of two small columns 14 and a cross-member 15 which is integral with a double barrel 16. Said double barrel opens into a splinter-guard 17 to which the ends of the small columns 14 are secured.

The yoke 13 is adapted to guide transversely to the longitudinal axis of the gun a magazine-actuating unit which consists in this case of a sliding breech-block 18 having a recess in the form of an elongated channel and provided on the rear face thereof with a toothed rack 19.

Said sliding breech-block, which is adapted to accommodate the magazine-loader 20, is provided at one end with a stationary locking-catch 21 through which is slidably inserted a push-rod ejector 22 and, at the other end, with a swivelcatch 23 beneath which is formed an ejection ramp 24. The swivel-catch 23 is integral with a threaded stem which is engaged in a tapped hole of the breech-block 18 and is so designed that the magazineloader is forcibly applied against said breech-block, thereby ensuring effective closure and gas-tightness of the loading chambers of the magazine-loader.

The guide yoke 13 (which forms a component of the slide system which is intended to accommodate and guide the assembly consisting of sliding breech-block 18 and magazine-loader 29) is provided on one side with a support 25a on which is pivotally mounted (about an axis which is perpendicular, on the one hand, to the longitudinal axis of the gun and, on the other hand, to the intended direction of motion of the sliding breechblock and magazine) a nut 25 which is integral with a lever 28 whose free extremity is engaged within a recess constituted by a milled portion 6a which is formed in the inner tube 6.

A pawl 26 is slidably fitted within a diametral bore formed in the nut 25 and is subjected to the action of a spring 27. Said pawl terminates in a control knob 2? and the tooth of said pawl is designed to cooperate with the ratchet teeth of the rack-bar 19.

As each telescopic movement of relative penetration is carried out by the two portions of the gun, that is to say each time a thrust is produced by the operator on the buttstock or grip 1c and therefore on the assembly which consists of the sleeve 1 and inner tube 6 and into which the guide bush 12 accordingly penetrates (said guide bush being integral with the whole front portion of the gun, namely that portion which is brought to bear on the material into which the stud or pin is intended to be driven), the pawl 26 describes a path having the shape of a circular arc and initiates the one-step forward movement, that is to say by one tooth, of the rack 19 and consequently of the sliding breech-block 18 and magazineloader 2t as shown in FIG. 2. It should be noted that, as is the case with a certain number of stud-driving in guns of known types, it is only in the position of full penetration that the firing-pin can strike the cartridges contained in the magazine-loader; if this position is not reached, the cartridges contained in the magazine-loader are beyond the reach of the firing-pin.

When the operator releases the thrust which he has produced on the rear portion of the gun, the restoring spring 9 returns this portion into the rest position (as shown in FIG. 1) and, during this return movement, the nut 25 swings back in the reverse direction and the pawl 26 is permitted by the spring 27 to move over the following tooth of the rack-bar.

The magazine-loader 20 which is shown in this example is a parallelpipedal block formed of aluminium, for example, and provided at each end both with a locking heel 3t) and with and inclined face for ejection purposes. The block is pierced by a certain number of passageways 31, each forming a combustion chamber for the round of ammunition 32 contained therein and thus ensuring initial guiding of the stud, pin or plug 32a over a distance which is either equal to or greater than the length of said stud, pin or plug.

In view of the fact that, in this specific form of embodiment, the gun has a double barrel, the passageways 31 of the magazine-loader are arranged in staggered rela tion in two parallel rows, and it will be apparent that the pitch as considered between the passageway of one row and the following passageway of the adjacent row corresponds to the pitch of the toothed rack 19.

As can be seen from FIG. 9, the extremity of the firing-pin Ell is tapered to a parallelpipedal end-face 11a which is designed to reach the rim of the cartridge (which is in this case of the annular percussion or rim-firing type). That portion of the firing-pin end-face which projects radially from the rim of each cartridge is adapted to penetrate into a recess 33 which is provided for this purpose in the magazine-loader. A cylindrical hole 34 of the sliding breech-block corresponds to each of said recesses 33. The full force of the firing-pin is thus applied to each cartridge.

In order to brake the magazine-loader 20, to prevent this latter from being accidentally released from the gun, and to place each chamber of the magazinedoader in register with the corresponding bore of the barrel i6, provision has been made for the position-maintenance system which is illustrated in FIG. 12. This system (of which the position is indicated in PEG. 1) consists of a socket 35 which is fixed in the yoke 13 and which serves as a guide for a ball 36. Said ball is urged in the forward direction by a spring 37 and this latter bears on an endplug 38 which is screwed into the socket referred to above.

The complete assembly is placed in the yoke 13 in such manner that the ball is capable of cooperating with the braking recesses formed by the openings of the cylindrical holes 34.

It will be understood that the two bores 16a and 16b of the double barrel are spaced at a distance which corresponds to the distance between the two series of loading passages of the magazine-loader, and that each bore serves for the terminal guiding of the tired stud or pin.

In an alternative form of embodiment of the gun as shown in FIG. 10, the slide system which serves to guide the magazine-loader and its toothed-rack drive system is adapted to accommodate magazine-loaders which can have different dimensions in the direction of the width (in a direction parallel to the bore 16).

To this end, that portion of the gun which is located opposite to the yoke 13 and consisting of the assembly which is formed by the barrel 16 and cross-member 15a is longitudinally movable and subjected to the action of elastic means which tend to thrust said assembly back in the direction of the yoke 13 so as to clamp the magazineloader 20. The cross-member 15a is in this case pierced by two holes and thus permitted to slide on the small columns which are designated in this example by the reference 14a. Coil springs 3a which surround said small columns and bear on the splinter-guard 17 exert a thrust on the cross-member 15a, the travel of which in the direction of the yoke 13 is limited by the fact that each small column 14a has a portion of larger diameter which is located near said yoke and accordingly provides an annular shoulder 14b which serves as an end-of-travel stop for the sliding cross-member 15a.

In an alternative form of magazine-loader as shown in FIG. 11, the loading chambers 31:; are no longer throughpassages as designated by the reference 31 in FIG. 7, but are closed at the rear end except for the aperture 40 which is provided for the entry of the firing-pin.

Accordingly, by reason of the fact that gas-tightness of the chambers 31a is ensured, it is no longer necessary to apply the magazine-loader forcibly against a breechblock 18 which is provided with locking means. Said breech-block can in that case be replaced by a simple sliding cradle 4-1 which is provided with apertures for the entry of the firing-pin 1 and which is fitted with the rack bar 19a, the magazine-loader being fitted in said cradle without being locked therein.

As will be apparent, the examples of construction of the repeating-action stud-driving gun and of the magazine-loader as hereinabove described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings are not given in any limiting sense, since many alternative forms can be devised while nevertheless retaining the basic and essential means which consist in producing the step-by-step motion of the magazine-loader as a result of the relative longitudinal movement of a sliding unit.

Accordingly, the gun can be provided with a single barrel, in which case the magazine-loader is designed to contain only a single row of cartridges. The number of barrel bores provided can be greater than two and it is also possible to use in this form of embodiment magazine-loaders having more than two rows of cartridges; the toothed rack 19 is in that case designed to suit each particular case.

Similarly, instead of being rectilineal, the magazineloader can have the shape of a ring, drum, circular arc; the breech-block or cradle and the slide system are modified accordingly for the utilization of a magazine-loader of this type and the shape of the toothed rack also has a shape similar to that of a toothed annulus (or segment of annulus).

Similarly, the firing mechanism can be different from that which has been given as a specific example.

What I claim is:

1. In an explosively-actuated repeating-action power tool for driving in fastening means, having a tool body, at least one barrel and designed to accommodate a movable magazine-loader, control means for producing the step-by-step progression of said magazine-loader relatively to said tool body and a slidable operating unit operatively connected with said control means and operable longitudinally of said tool body, the said control means comprise a toothed rack to which said magazineloader is connectable, a support integral with the tool body, a pivotable nut rotatably mounted on said support and provided with a diametral through-hole, a pawl able to slide in said diametral hole and engageable with said toothed rack, a spring housed within said diametral hole for urging said pawl towards the toothed rack and a lever which is integral with said nut and operatively connected with said operating unit.

2. Explosively actuated power tool as defined in claim 1, further comprising, for accommodating the magazineloader, a breech-block which is slidable within the tool body, which is fitted with the toothed rack, and in which is formed a channel for receiving the back of said magazine-loader, the said breech-block having locking means for maintaining said magazine-loader in said channel, whereas the magazine-loader is provided with a heelshaped projection at each end and wherein the means for locking said magazine-loader in the breech-block channel comprise, on the one hand, a stationary locking-catch provided at one end of the sliding breech-block and so shaped as to clamp one of said heel-shaped projections of said magazine-loader and, on the other hand, a swivelcatch and guide ramp so shaped as to clamp the other heel-shaped projection in the locking position so that the back of said magazine-loader is forcibly applied against the bottom of the breech-block channel.

3. Explosively actuated power tool as defined in claim 2, wherein, in order to accommodate the magazine-loader which is provided with a plurality of through-passages each disposed at right angles to the direction of displacement of said magazine-loader in said power tool and each forming an individual loading and combustion chamber and guide bore disposed in at least two rows, the chambers of one row being displaced relatively to those of the adjacent row, the power-tool barrel is provided with a number of bores corresponding to the number of rows of chambers, said bores being displaced from each other by a distance equal to the spatial interval between two adjacent rows of loading chambers.

4. Explosively actuated power tool as defined in claim 3, wherein the base of the sliding breech-block is provided, for each of said chambers with an aperture for the entry of firingpin means, said apertures being disposed in a single row located in a central plane between the axes of the loading chambers and said apertures are so shaped as to permit the entry of the enlarged front tip of a single firing-pin which serves for two rows of loading chambers.

5. Explosively actuated power tool as defined in claim 2, wherein the back of the magazine-loader is provided with symmetrical guide ramps formed respectively at both ends of said magazine-loader and wherein the breechblock is rovided, on the one hand, at the location of the swivel-catch, with a guide ramp which is complementary to one of the end ramps of said magazine-loader and, on the other hand, with a push-rod ejector fitted in the stationary locking-catch.

6. Explosively actuated power tool as defined in claim 3, wherein said power tool additionally comprises braking means for immobilizing and registering the magazineloader so that each loading chamber moves into alignment with the corresponding barrel after having moved forward by one step in a step-by-step progression, said braking means consisting of a ball carried by the power tool and guided in a direction parallel to the power tool, and elastic means for urging said ball against the sliding breech-block so as to cooperate with position-setting recesses constituted by the apertures which are provided for the entry of the firing-pin.

7. Magazine-loader for explosively actuated repeating action power tool, wherein said magazine-loader consists of a parallelepipedal block which is slidable in the direction of its largest dimension transversely to the longitudinal aXis of the power tool and which is provided with a plurality of through-passages each having an axis at right angles to the direction of displacement of said magazine-loader and each forming an individual loading chamber.

8. Magazine-loader as defined in claim 7, wherein the individual loading chambers each form a combustion chamber and guide bore and are disposed in at least two rows, the chambers of one row being displaced with respect to those of the adjacent row.

9. Magazine-loader as defined in claim 7, wherein the rear end of each loading chamber is closed off by an endwall pierced by an aperture for the entry of firing-pin means.

10. Magazine-loader as defined in claim 7, wherein the parallelepipedal block is provided at each end with a locking wheel which is intended to be clamped by locking-catch means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,395,354 2/1946 Temple 2279 2,849,715 9/1958 Kopf 227-8 2,930,941 3/ 1960 Massacrier 227-11 3,048,850 8/1962 Schilling 227-11 3,095,572 7/1963 Massacrier 22711 3,119,113 1/1964 Bumiller 22710 XR QRANVI LLE C USTER, JR., Primary Examiner, 

1. IN AN EXPLOSIVELY-ACTUATED REPEATING-ACTION POWER TOOL FOR DRIVING IN FASTENING MEANS, HAVING A TOOL BODY, AT LEAST ONE BARREL AND DESIGNED TO ACCOMMODATE A MOVABLE MAGAZINE-LOADER, CONTROL MEANS FOR PRODUCING THE STEP-BY-STEP PROGRESSION OF SAID MAGAZINE-LOADER RELATIVELY TO SAID TOOL BODY AND A SLIDABLE OPERATING UNIT OPERATIVELY CONNECTED WITH SAID CONTROL MEANS AND OPERABLE LONGITUDINALLY OF SAID TOOL BODY, THE SAID CONTROL MEANS COMPRISE A TOOTHED RACK TO WHICH SAID MAGAZINELOADER IS CONNECTABLE, A SUPPORT INTEGRAL WITH THE TOOL BODY, A PIVOTABLE NUT ROTATABLY MOUNTED ON SAID SUPPORT AND PROVIDED WITH A DIAMETRAL THROUGH-HOLE, A PAWL ABLE TO SLIDE IN SAID DIAMETRAL HOLE AND ENGAGEABLE WITH SAID TOOTHED RACKS, A SPRING HOUSED WITHIN SAID DIAMETRAL HOLE FOR URGING SAID PAWL TOWARDS THE TOOTHED RACK AND A LEVER WHICH IS INTEGRAL WITH SAID NUT AND OPERATIVELY CONNECTED WITH SAID OPERATING UNIT. 